Field of the Invention
This invention relates to arrangements for facilitating access to the roof regions of a building.
In particular the present invention is concerned with facilitating access to the roof of a building such as a residential house, an office building, or other buildings having what is known as single pitched or double pitched roof constructions.
As is well known the upper most length part of such a roof is known as the ridge.
In the case of a double pitched roof construction the roof to either side of the roof ridge extends downwardly and outwardly away from the ridge which is usually located midway between the walls of the associated building and are in line with the length of the building. In the case of a single pitched roof the ridge is usually located above the wall that is in line with the length direction of the ridge.
For the purposes of the following discussion it will be presumed that the arrangement for facilitating access to the roof is particularly intended to facilitate access to a double pitched roof.
It is convenient to note that with a view to facilitating reduction in the amount of fossil fuels used for producing electrical power it is known to produce electrical power by harnessing the energy of the sun. This power production can be direct as is possible with the use of photovoltaic cells or indirectly by concentrating solar power upon a heatable material that when heated enables production of electrical power. For example one such method involves appropriately focussing the sun's energy so that the focused energy is able to boil water which is then used to provide the desired power.
Description of the Related Art
Generally speaking in relation to buildings such as above mentioned it has been proposed to mount directly upon the roofs of such buildings electricity generating/producing units incorporating an array of photovoltaic cells. These units are generally known as solar panels and are usually mounted upon a roof at location(s) at which it would be able to receive and react to sunlight over as long as possible period during a day.
A solar panels are generally incorporates a shallow rectangular shallow tray like container within which is located a rectangular array of individual photovoltaic cells appropriately electrically interconnected to the output of the panel. A protective sheet of transparent glass/plastics covers in the cells.
As will be appreciated by reason of their extended area rectangular shape, the shallowness of the panels and the fact that they are covered in with sheet glass/plastics the panels need to be very carefully handled during fitting to a roof and whenever it is desired to carry out servicing operation upon fitted panels.